Sunday, 10 January 2016

RELEASE BLITZ - DOWNFALL - THE INCORRUPTIBLES BY S.D. WASLEY

Frankie’s cousin wants her
to do three things this year:1. Lose her inhibitions2. Do something spectacularly stupid3. Fall madly in love

Travelling was
Frankie’s life. As the daughter of a big-name evangelist, she’s been able to
feed her hunger for new sights throughout most of her teenage years. Then a
hushed-up scandal gets her thrown off the tour circuit and stuck at her uncle’s
house in the town of Augur’s Well.

Forced to repeat her
failed senior year, it looks like a dismal existence for Frankie—until she’s
invited to the bizarre meeting place of four mismatched people ... and falls
hard for the fascinating, secretive Cain Aleister.

Furtive meetings in an
underground chamber ... Latin words carved into a stone wall ... intense desire
... and a secret so elusive she’ll do almost anything to bust it open. Until
now, Frankie never believed in grand passions—but that’s not the only one of
her beliefs about to implode right before her eyes.

“Where are your friends?” He nodded toward the wall with
the carven words. Somehow I’d missed it on my first look around the room, but
now I saw a man stretched out asleep on a ragged sofa. “Who’s that?”

“Cain.” Jude took the chip bag out of my hands. “I’ll
just put these cans in the cooler. You wake him up.”

“Me?”

Jude went down a dim corridor. I looked back at Cain, who
still slumbered peacefully. Screw that. I wasn’t waking up this guy I’d never
met. Jude could do that when he got back from his cooler mission. But an odd
feeling of recognition came over me and I drew closer. Was it possible I knew
this man? From school? No way. He was older than me by at least a few years.
From Dad’s church? Seemed unlikely. I knelt beside the sofa, looking up and
down the length of his body, from his tangled brown hair to his bare feet,
lying one on top of the other. His left arm was exposed, palm up, and tiny
scars peppered its crook. When I worked my examination back up to Cain’s face I
found his eyes open, mirroring the shock and fascination I felt. We gazed at
one another for a long, tense moment.

Finally his eyes flicked upwards, above and behind me.
“Who is she?”

I hadn’t noticed Jude standing skittishly at my back
because I couldn’t take my eyes off Cain. His face now he was awake was … well,
there was no word for it but stunning.
It wasn’t even something identifiable, like striking eyes or sensual lips. Just
a face that could make you forget to blink until your eyeballs dried out. A
face that could, and was, making my body react—despite my efforts to control
it.

“What is she doing here?” Cain’s voice was calm, a still
body of water against Jude’s nerviness.

“I thought you might think she’s, uh … okay …”

Cain nodded. I felt a rush of air from Jude as he turned
away, heading down that dark corridor again. Cain sat up and lit a cigarette,
rubbing the back of his head. He offered me one and I shook my head in wordless
distaste, although these cigarettes didn’t seem as bad as most. In fact, I
couldn’t really smell it at all. He drew on it deeply and gave me a smile,
fixing his eyes on my face.

“Hello, Francesca Caravaggio. I’m Cain. Cain Aleister.”

“Frankie.” My reply sounded lame, helpless, because I was
seriously disturbed by that smile. It didn’t seem fair that he could keep
climbing degrees of stunning like that. “Everyone calls me Frankie.”

He puffed on his cigarette. “The others will be here
soon.” His voice. It was soothing,
comforting, and intimately warm.

“Who are they?” I asked, more to distract myself than
from actual curiosity.

“There’s Liz. She’s a nurse I met in the hospital when I
came off my bike.”

“Yeah. Well, no. I haven’t always been in town. Not for
the last few years.”

“Why’s that?”

Okay, here it went. This was the bit where I admitted to
this guy who was incredible in a way I had never—not in forty-five cities over three years—seen before, that I was
Don Carver’s daughter. If I could have closed my eyes to get it over with, I
would have.

“My father’s a well-known author,” I said in a rush. “He
made it big in the last few years and I’ve been touring with him. It takes me
out of town for most of each year. Took,” I corrected myself, the new reality
coming back to me like a slap. “It took me out of town for most of the year,
but not this year. I’m staying in Augur’s Well now. To study.”

“Oh.”

He played with his cigarette for a moment before lying
back on his sofa, positioning himself so he could still observe me. That’s it? I watched him, suspicious. He
wasn’t going to ask why? He wasn’t going to ask my dad’s name? He wasn’t going
to tell me he’d heard of my dad’s Saints
Among Us book series and live shows and thought they were a load of
bullshit?

“Have you always lived in Augur’s Well?” was all he
asked.

“Uh, no. We lived in Land’s End for a few years. That’s
where my mum comes from. Dad had a job managing the grocery store so we lived
there till I started school.”

“Did you like that? Living on the coast?”

“I loved it.” He waited, but I hesitated to give him any
more information about myself. I was already at a major disadvantage in this
situation. I seized the questioner’s role. “So … you’re not at school, I
guess?”

Cain gave a small smile. “Not for a few years now.”

“Been in Augur’s Well long?”

“No. Just a year. I lived in Revel City before that.”

“Did you get a job here or something?” I couldn’t think
of any other reason someone would move from vibrant Revel City to the flat,
anonymous town of Augur’s Well.

“Just knew I had to live here.” As he spoke he watched me
closely. Was he trying to detect a particular reaction?

I didn’t give him one. “Okay.”

I wanted to ask how old he was but wasn’t sure that was
something you asked a man you’d just met. It had never come up as an etiquette
issue for me before. Cain reached for an opened soda can and shook it to see if
any drink remained, and then dropped his cigarette into the can. It hissed as
he turned his head back and smiled at me again, that terrifyingly beautiful
smile. My whole body responded to it. I looked away, telling myself to get it
together. Where the heck is Jude?

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Hi, My name is Sandra, though for my blog I go by an adaptation of my middle name, Jeanz! I live in the UK, started blogging in Aug 2011. I have always loved books!. If a blurb catches my eye I will usually give reading it a go!

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